


Heart Empty of Flame

by MariaAshby64



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Insomnia, Late Night Conversations, Post Movie, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:47:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25645294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MariaAshby64/pseuds/MariaAshby64
Summary: Lio can't sleep.Life just hadn't been the same since the fire that used to burn in him had left.One night he finds he's not the only with heavy thoughts on his mind.
Relationships: Lio Fotia & Galo Thymos
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	Heart Empty of Flame

Lio rolled over in his bed for the umpteenth time. He’d lost count of how many useless sighs had been heaved from his chest already. Lying on his side, he tucked his knees up to his chest. He felt cold. Cold in a way that he knew he would still feel, no matter how may blankets he piled on.

He sighed and rolled over again, this time kicking off his bed covers and sitting upright. The chilly night air stung his skin, but he let it. If the air around him was cold, then he didn’t notice the empty feeling within his chest.

The room around him was dark, lit only by the streetlight peeking in through the window blinds. The snores of his second in commands, Gueira and Meis, rumbled uninterrupted around the room. They lay in their own makeshift beds, slumbering away together. Lio envied their ability to sleep without any qualms.

He sighed, swinging his feet to the floor and standing up with a stretch.

Trying to sleep was futile.

Quietly he exited the room and slipped into the hallway outside. From there he made his way about the dark rooms of the Burning Rescue facility.

The organisation had gladly accepted Lio into their residency, seeing as he had no other place to go. They also had been a big help in finding homes for all the other Ex-Burnish who had been rescued. Three weeks had passed since the Promare had left earth and there were still so many people who needed their help.

Lio found his feet carrying him to the stairwell that led up to the roof. It wasn’t the first time he’d climbed these stairs in the middle of the night; in fact, he could probably run up them blindfolded if he really tried. He wondered if the crew that worked here could actually do that as well.

Once he reached the heavy metal door leading outside, he grabbed the handle and shouldered it open. The fresh night wind buffeted his hair as he stepped out onto the roof.

To his surprise he wasn’t the only one out here tonight.

“Aren’t you cold?” Lio asked as he approached Galo against the edge of the building railing. He was wearing a simple t-shirt, buffeted by the wind.

“Huh?” Galo spun around. Catching sight of Lio, he smiled. “Lio, what are you doing up here so late, or should I say early?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Lio replied, resting against the rail with him. Galo was staring off into the city skyline. Many of the skyscrapers had been felled when the ship that Kray Forsite had created crashed back to earth. Lio never really had a chance to appreciate such a sight without the innate desire to turn each of those small lights into a bursting flame.

Lio shook his head clear. He didn’t have those feelings anymore.

“I was thinking,” Galo said.

“Hmm? Don’t hurt yourself.”

“I was thinking about these Ex-Burnish we still have to build homes for,” Galo continued, unaware that he had been insulted. “And about the rest of them.”

“What about them?”

“Whether they’re happy enough.”

Lio blinked. He cast a sideways glance at Galo. “What?”

“You know…” Galo waved his hands. “They’ve had such a rough time and everything. Being imprisoned, tortured, had their homes destroyed…” He turned to Lio. “I want to know if they’re happy.”

The wind carried Lio’s sigh away as he ran a hand down his face. “I really don’t get you sometimes, Galo.”

“Huh?” It was Galo’s turn to blink. “Why?”

“You’re not even Burnish,” Lio stated. “You should be worrying about everyone on your side of the mess.”

Galo frowned. “My side?”

“You know,” Lio huffed. “Humans. Ones who couldn’t resonate with the Promare. There are a lot of bystanders who got hurt by this mess, not just the Burnish.”

“Now, that doesn’t make any sense.” Galo pointed a finger at Lio.

“How so?”

“Cause the Burnish are people too! You said that yourself. Of course I should try to help them!”

“They’re not _your_ people,” Lio refuted.

“It doesn’t matter!” Galo thumped his chest with his fist. “It’s my job to save people. And I’ll save all of them, Burnish or not. It’s all the same to me.”

Lio pursed his lips. As much as he would hate to admit it; he could, for once, read Galo’s logic here. “Alright then.” He resigned his argument and rested against the railing again.

He didn’t have anything else to say. Galo apparently didn’t either. The faint noise of distant traffic wafted over the city as they simply watched the stars pass. The wind picked up again and Lio shivered, his sleeping clothes ill protection against the cold.

“Lio…” Galo said, still looking out at the skyline, “…Are you happy?”

Lio gave him a confused glance. “You’re asking me?”

“I’m asking you.”

“…Why?”

“Well, you’re an Ex-Burnish… _And_ you’re my friend!” He bumped Lio with his arm. “I wanna know if you’re alright!”

Lio grumbled something unintelligible. Galo had been using that word a lot over the last few weeks they had worked together.

_Friend._

Lio didn’t have any friends.

Well, he had his second in commands, Gueira and Meis, who followed him and whom he trusted more than anyone else. But he couldn’t really consider them as _friends_. The word simply felt wrong on the tongue. Perhaps it was that they still called him ‘Boss’ even after the Mad Burnish had been disbanded. If Lio had to guess, he might have called them ‘brothers’… It seemed to fit closer than ‘friend’ anyway.

“Lio?” Galo was looking at him now, wearing an uncharacteristically serious expression.

Lio bit his lip.

He could say he was fine. That Galo had nothing to worry about…

But that wouldn’t be the truth exactly, would it?

 _A friend would tell the truth_ , Lio thought.

“I can’t sleep,” Lio admitted quietly. “Most nights I just end up staring at the wall or coming out here for fresh air. There’s this… emptiness in my chest that doesn’t go away. I feel cold all the time. I feel like there’s a part of me that’s missing… and I know I won’t ever get it back, but… sometimes I feel like I’m… incomplete in some way.”

“Because you can’t hear the Promare anymore?” Galo guessed.

Lio held out his hand, palm up. Memories of the last fleeting moments of contact he had with the Promare drifted in the back of his mind. He sighed and pulled it close to his chest.

“…Yeah.”

“You’ll get better!”

When Lio looked up at Galo he was wearing that same grin he had given him after they had defeated Kray and saved the world.

Lio scowled. “You don’t even know what it feels like.”

“I know what it’s like to lose something.”

There was a story behind that. A piece of history about Galo that Lio had yet to find out. He hadn’t considered Galo’s losses before. Probably because his old prejudices towards ordinary humans were still stuck in his head. He supposed there wouldn’t be any need for them anymore…

“And besides,” Galo was still talking. “You’re one of the strongest people I know, Lio. Stronger than me.”

Lio started. He scoffed, “Not like this, I’m not-”

“Yes.” Galo pointed a finger at him again. “You are. You had your whole people taken away from you and you fought to get them back. What’s more, you didn’t even kill anyone to do it. That’s what makes you strong, Lio.”

“I only didn’t kill anyone because you stopped me.” Lio glanced away. A dim glow was starting to appear on the horizon. “More than once.”

“Well, I promised that I got your back, didn’t I?” He clapped Lio hard on the shoulder.

In his distracted state of mind, Lio was unprepared and felt himself stumble. For a scary second, he thought he might lose his stance completely and tumble over the railing, but he caught himself as he swayed uneasily. He took a moment to settle himself before smiling as a laugh escaped from his chest.

“Though spark and flame, right?”

Galo gave him a thumbs up. “Right!”

Lio let himself relax as he bumped Galo’s hand with the back of his fist. “Well I guess if you’re helping out it won’t be a _complete_ disaster.”

“See!”

“Galo, you’re terrible at taking insults.”

“Huh!?”

Lio chuckled as Galo stared at him. He sighed and composed himself. “I wouldn’t stay up worrying about how happy the Ex-Burnish are, if I were you.”

“Why?”

Lio gazed fondly out at the glowing skyline. “Well, you’ve already cheered one up tonight. I’m sure the rest of them will come around when you get to work.”

Galo stared at Lio for a second before smiling and resting his arms against the railing. “Yeah!”

They ended up waiting until a familiar pink hue started to spread over the horizon before calling it quits. They snuck back to bed in the hopes for some shuteye before inevitably getting up for another day. During that time, Lio thought that maybe, just maybe, he could make it through this if he had a friend like Galo by his side.

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this fic in my head for a while since I watched this film. I'm glad I finally got around to writing it. The concept of Lio dealing with the aftermath of the Promare leaving is a concept I've always like the idea of. (Unfortunately I don't have the time to write a full on fic, but this small oneshot will do.)
> 
> Special thanks to HouseofSannae for beta reading!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed reading!


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